Pu’er Tea Forests: Into the Deep Green

Today, we’ll talk about the Pu’er tea forests of Jingmai Mountain in Yunnan Province that have now become the latest UNESCO heritage site in China. Local people are excited but also somewhat anxious about whether the new designation will disrupt the lifestyle they have enjoyed for a thousand years. 

Transcript

Pu’er Tea Forests: Into the Deep Green 

Today, we’ll talk about the Pu’er tea forests of Jingmai Mountain in Yunnan Province that have now become the latest UNESCO heritage site in China. Local people are excited but also somewhat anxious about whether the new designation will disrupt the lifestyle they have enjoyed for a thousand years. 

A winding mossy path zigzags through the tranquil green, into the depths of the primitive forest. On both sides stand towering trees, cradling the old tea bushes in the middle. Villager Nan Kang holds a thin twig, poking at the wild grass underfoot now and then as he warned, “Watch out for snakes.” 

Treading on the soft leaves, he stopped at the foot of a mountain and said, “This is the earliest tea forest developed by us Blang people. This was where our ancestors lived when they first came to the Jingmai Mountains and settled here. It’s our sacred mountain.

Mount Aileng, the one Nan Kang pointed to, is a small peak among the Jingmai Mountain range, located in the Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, Pu’er City, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province. On the mountain grow huge old tea bushes that the Blang people have lived alongside for centuries. Around a tenth of the tea trees are over 100 years old, the oldest one nearly 400. 

A man of medium build and tanned skin, Nan Kang is of Blang ethnicity, born and raised in Mangjing Village of the Lancang County. He is clad in traditional Blang clothes, with a tea leaf pattern embroidered on the chest. As the totem of the Blang, this pattern is seen everywhere.  

A huge change has awakened the quietness. On September 17, 2023, the Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests of the Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er was listed as a world heritage site at the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. These ancient tea forests that slumber by China’s southwestern border are now for the world to see. 

Jingmai Mountain range nestles between the Nanlang River and the Nanmen River. There are two mountain ranges within the Jingmai belt: on the north-south Mangjing range there are five ancient Blang villages, and on the east-west Baixiang Mountain range there are another four ancient villages inhabited by Dai ethnic groups. Ancestors of the Blang and Dai settled in the forests and cultivated tea bushes a thousand years ago. Now on Jingmai Mountain, one can still see five well-preserved tea forests and three protective shelter forests. 

The newly selected heritage site consists of these five tea forests, three shelter forests and the nine villages. The remoteness is what preserved the old tea forests and the traditional lifestyle of the mountain people.  

Professor Chen Yaohua of the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Peking University told The Context: “There are still other old tea forests in Yunnan. So, why was only Jingmai Mountain chosen as a UNESCO heritage site? The reason is that in this place, not only can you see the old tea forests, but also well-preserved traditional lifestyles of the ethnic groups, as well as the inseparable relationship between tea and people.” Chen has been dedicated to helping Jingmai Mountain’s application for UNESCO status for over a decade. 

Nan Kang said that the people of Jingmai Mountain have an old tradition: tea farmers plant a “tea spirit tree” in front of their own tea bushes. This spirit tree is an embodiment of the faith and moral values of local people, reminding them to revere every bush as nature’s blessing and to avoid overcollection.  

He paused by a seemingly ordinary tea tree. There stood two one-meter-high wooden pillars – one, carved with delicate patterns, stood for the scepter of the tea spirit, the other held a bamboo basket on its top with ritual foods people prepared for the tea spirit. This was a tea spirit tree for a particular household. The Blang say it symbolizes the very first tea tree planted by their ancestors a thousand years ago. Every year, right before the picking season, tea farmers hold a ritual under the tree to offer sacrifices to the tea god. 

Faith still plays a vital role in people’s living on the Jingmai Mountain. This is a place where Buddhism had wonderful chemistry with local beliefs. The most salient local belief is the worship of the tea god and tea farming ancestors. 

Following Nan Kang, our reporter saw traces of folk beliefs all along the mountain. In the deep forest of Aileng Mountain, there was a stone sacrificial altar called “the altar of the tea spirit.” In the middle stood a three-meter-high pillar, on the top of which there were two wooden planks spreading like wings, carved with animal and geometric patterns. Five sacrificial pillars stood on different corners of the altar, representing the five ethnic groups who have lived in the mountainous area for generations – the Blang, Dai, Hani, Lahu, and Va. On festival days every year, the Blang people gather round the altar, holding rituals to summon the god of tea. 

People on Jingmai Mountain harbor special worship of trees, not only tea trees, but also other kinds of trees they relate with divinity. Halfway up Aileng Mountain, there is a 100-year-old banyan tree some 50 meters high. It has more than 70 black beehives on its branches, inhabited by quite large bees, which the local people call “the killing bees.” The Blang, who regard the Banyan tree as the tree of bee god, forbid people to collect honey from the hives. On some festive occasions, the Blang also hold rituals there. 

The deeply set local beliefs and inherent reverence for nature make people on the mountain consciously protect the surrounding natural environment. Thus, the ancient tea forests are preserved intact to this day.

Behind the stone gate with a carving that says “the Old Tea Forest of Jingmai Mountain,” there lies a cobbled path that ends deep into the forest. Both sides are thickly lined with 30-meter-high trees. This is the Dapingzhang Old Tea Forest, one of the five tea forests listed as the world heritage site and the only one open to the public. 

Sunshine filters through the tea trees. The forest provides the best light conditions for the Yunnan large leaf tea to grow. Under the midday heat, this shade-enduring tea species that prefers warmth and moisture can grow at its best and yield the maximum amount of tea leaves. 

Xiong Dengkui, an associate research fellow of the Lancang Museum, said as he walked along the high path, panting slightly from the exertion of walking over 1,000 meters above sea level, “The tall trees help create the best growing conditions for the tea groves. This is where our ancestors’ wisdom lies.” 

Xiong pointed to the three different vegetation layers: the towering trees at the top, the tea groves about the same height as humans in the middle, and the herbaceous vegetation at the bottom. The three layers create a unique organic ecosystem – the trees shade the tea groves while the vegetation and fallen leaves fertilize the soil. The biodiversity in the soil gives tea bushes a natural defense against pests and diseases. 

This method of cultivation is called “tea under the trees” and originated in Jingmai Mountain. Understanding the growing habits of the Yunnan large leaf tea, ancestors on the mountain utilized the ecological environment of the forest: they cut down parts of trees and shrubs and preserved enough deciduous trees for natural shade. Under the shade, they grew tea bushes and created tea plantations. Xiong told The Context that this particular growing method has later been introduced and used outside the mountain. 

But the mountain ancestors’ tea-planting wisdom went beyond just that. In the periphery of every old tea forest there is a well-preserved protective barrier forest 40 meters wide, where the felling of trees is prohibited. This shelter forest, “the back” as the Blang’s ancestors called it, is used to protect tea trees from wind, frost, pests and diseases, and wild animals. If a tea forest gets infected with pests, the natural shield of the shelter forest prevents its spread.  

The local people’s bond with tea has lasted over 1,000 years. When in the 10th century, the Blang people discovered and settled Jingmai Mountain, it was covered with primitive forests and wild tea bushes. The Blang lived by hunting, but when they discovered the medicinal value of the wild tea, they began to domesticate the species. Tea was mainly used as medicine in the beginning to cure sores and other conditions.  

In the 14th century, the Yuan Dynasty, which lasted from 1271 to 1368, had frequent armed conflicts with Myanmar in the area of Ruili, Yunnan Province, forcing the Dai people who lived there to escape the violence. Some Dai people moved to Jingmai Mountain. They brought more advanced production technology and a more refined culture. Since then, people of the Blang and the Dai lived, intermarried, and planted tea together, developing common habits and cultures.  

Today, people still live in traditional log cabins where the house is suspended above the ground and supported by log pillars. This architectural structure protects the houses from being too damp.  

Every village on the mountain maintains a particular layout. In each village there is a center with a raised platform at its heart, where they hold religious activities. Every road in the village crosses the center. At the highest point of every village stands a Buddhist temple. These villages were all built along the highest mountain in their surroundings. That particular mountain is regarded as the holy mountain of that village. 

Chen Yaohua told The Context that even though the old faith still plays a role in the local people’s life, it does not mean they are leading a primitive life. The fresh air of modernity blew into the villages long before. Even the village elders are obsessed with watching videos on Douyin, China’s equivalent of TikTok. And some traditional dwellings have been transformed into guesthouses. 

Lots of mountain people send their children to the towns and cities for a better education. The younger generation who once studied and worked in cities brought back new changes to their hometown. Yan Kan, a young man who used to live in Beijing, founded a coffee brand and is an online influencer making quality short videos about his hometown. Ye Xiang, a Blang girl who majored in financial management, decided to embark on livestream e-commerce to promote her mother’s tea brand. 

Along with the decade-long process of declaring Jingmai Mountain as a world heritage site, the fame of the Pu’er tea on the mountain has grown more and more. Tea-related income accounts for 90 percent of the total earnings of the mountain people. According to authorities in Pu’er City, the average price of Pu’er tea produced on Jingmai Mountain increased from 500 yuan, about US$68 per kilogram in 2010 to about 1,200 yuan, about US$164 per kilogram in 2022. 

The mountain has also witnessed a rise in tourism in recent years, as leading travel and tourism firms like China Tourism Group and hotel brands such as Bolian, Aman, and Songtsam have come in.   

During the Spring Festival Holiday earlier this year, over 7,000 tourists came to the Nuogang Village on Jingmai Mountain, a Dai village with a history of over 600 years. Nuogang is the best-preserved Dai village on the mountain, with 96 structures listed as national key cultural relics. Tourists come to experience the old way of tea-making and enjoy the scenic beauty. But the rush of tourists put a strain on the village, as it still lacks enough accommodation. 

From administrators to villagers, people on the Jingmai Mountain are expectant but still a bit uncertain about the upcoming tourism boom. Zhang Pi, director of the Conservation Administration of the Old Tea Forests of Jingmai Mountain, told The Context that even though the old tea forests have been successfully listed as a UNESCO cultural heritage, to better preserve the local biological environment, there should be only one tea forest open to the public. Jingmai Mountain still needs to preserve its timeless tranquility, despite the expected rush of visitors. 

Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Ni Wei, translator Yi Ziyi, and copy editor Kathleen Naday. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.